A journey through time: spectacular photography of living rooms from “Old China”

Marrigje de Maar (*1944 in The Hague) creates photographs of the ephemeral world of the home, of being rooted. She regards the interior itself as a portrait of identity. The trained sociologist seeks out those striking and magical places where families have come together for generations—where life has “worn itself into” a house. Very important is her unusual treatment of light: her photographs are veritable masterpieces of chiaroscuro.

After five trips to China, a substantial body of work has taken shape. While vast areas of housing in many Chinese communes were being demolished in order to make way for the modern age and its contemporary lifestyle and attitudes, de Maar found a surprising diversity of types and uses of classical living spaces. Never before has the worn and intimate character of household life in China, in all its culturally hybrid forms, been revealed in such a direct manner.